Is Social Media the Secret to Reality TV's Success?

The Voice, Dancing with the Stars, Survivor, So You Think You Can Dance and The Real Housewives franchise- ever heard of these shows? Of course you have, because all of these highly successful shows  have social media elements built in to them. Coincidence? I personally think there are no coincidences in life and social media is the secret ingredient that raised the bar for reality TV.

In an interview the Social Media Examiner did with Mark Burnett, Survivor's executive producer, Burnett states that social media has expanded what was known as "water cooler conversation." These discussions you used to have at work with co-workers are now constantly happening through social media. That original bond people had with reality shows began because people could relate to the stars, but now, social media has fed people's fascination with reality TV and made it grow. People live tweet with other fans during shows, write blogs about the shows (just as I am doing now) and read up on gossip about their favorite reality TV stars. Social media has increased reality TV's access and reach by leaps and bounds.

Here are how some of our favorite reality shows incorporate social media into its platform:

The Voice: All contestants have Twitter accounts, the show has a live Twitter feed on its website where it posts viewer's tweets throughout show. Viewers can vote for their favorites on Facebook, NBC.com or NBC apps. This season, the instant save was introduced where the audience had five minutes to tweet and save an eliminated contestant. Fans also had the chance this season to participate in the Kia Voice Fans Sweepstakes, where fans submit a video or Twitter question to one of the contestants and one grand prize winner is awarded a new Kia. Finally, contestants songs are put on iTunes for purchase and their rank on iTunes plays into their vote tallies each week.

Dancing with the Stars: All of the show's pros and celebs have accounts on Twitter. In recent seasons, Dancing with the Stars has run numerous contests on Twitter to get fans involved in the show such as voting for an encore dance, voting for prom king and queen on prom theme night, and voting during the infamous partner switch-up week. Many of the shows pros and celebrities also blog about their training on different media outlets and viewer's tweets are posted during the live show each week. Lastly, in addition to phone line voting, the audience votes for their favorite dancer each week through Facebook, Twitter and the abc.com website.

Survivor: The Survivor webpage includes videos, photos, live footage of Ponderosa, the jury camp, a message board and interactive fan activities. The best aspect of their site though is the watch and chat function, where you can watch the last episode and live chat with other fans. Survior contestants write blogs and the audience picks their "fan favorite" by voting on Twitter. Then, on the live reunion special, fan questions from Twitter are answered and people are live tweeting.

So You Think You Can Dance: Fans are allowed to vote online through the website by signing in with their Facebook accounts. All top 20 contestants of each season are required to have Twitter account with certain names pertaining to that season (ex: @Dance11Bridget). A new element to the show this year is the addition of dance crews. Fans will vote for their favorite dance crew on Twitter and the winners will perform on one of the live shows.

The Real Housewives: All Real Housewives shows are aired a second time as the "social edition" of the show and feature tweets from fans throughout the episodes. Housewives are required to write weekly blogs and a number of them live tweet with fans during their respective franchise's episodes. Andy Cohen's talk show "Watch What Happens Live" regularly features the housewives as guests, who answer questions via phone and Twitter.

I think it's safe to say that social media is crucial to the success of reality TV now. If your fans are not engaged in the show, your show will flop. Reality TV shows have to be a two-way street complete with fan interaction in order to rise to the top.

Visit the following link to watch the Social Media Examiner's interview with Mark Burnett that I reference above:
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-and-reality-tv-how-mark-burnett-is-leading-the-way/

Love Them or Leave Them: The Beauty Box Club-of-the-Month Craze

People like their products just like they like their information: convenient, tailored to their interests, and at a marginal price. Enter stage left: the beauty box club-of-the-month craze. If you are a regular social media user, you will see that a new box enters this market almost weekly. After doing some research, I saw a few glaring reasons why people are drawn to this new trend.

1. People love to get things in the mail-especially women. AS a member of one of these clubs, women feel like the company sends them a personalized surprise present each month- even though they signed up for the club and pay the fee.

2. Convenience- Let's face it: we, as a society, are lazy people . If something isn't in our own social media news feed we don't know about it and if a product is not sent to our door we won't try it. We want what we want and we want it now. Clubs-of-the-month thrive off of this attitude.

3. People feel like they are getting a bargain- Look, I know the box is a good value because you get all these samples cheaper than buying the individual products, but if it wasn't sent to your door, would you even think about buying this stuff? Just a thought to ponder on....

So for those of you interested, here is some information on the big kahunas of the beauty box club-of-the-month world:

Birchbox

• First on the market- send you 4 or 5 beauty samples plus and extra like a hair tie or energy bar
• Products range in size from teeny tiny to retail size; quality ranges from drugstore to higher-end
• Products sent out each month vary from user to user, 
• $10 per month and can cancel at any time
• 4 month waiting list period
• Comes in a recycled cardboard box with pink tissue paper

Julep

• Runs off of the Maven program, sign up and take the style quiz to determine your personal style
• $20 a month; you receive an email before you get the box telling you what will be in your box and if you don't like the contents you can request another box for that month
• Pause or cancel your subscription at any time or send your box one month to a friend as a gift
• Mavens get 20% off purchases from the julep website,

Ipsy

• 4 or 5 cosmetic, hair or skincare products, same for all customers each month, heavier on makeup samples
• Includes coupons and discount codes for the different products
• $10 a month and can cancel at anytime
• Products come in a cheap-looking , reusable makeup pouch that usually coincides with the month's theme
• Ipsy tends to focus more on the higher-end brands for their products which produces a better value than birchbox

Glossybox

• 5-6 deluxe size samples or full-size products each month
• Concentrates on luxury and foreign brands; subcribers are exposed to products they wouldn't normally know about
• Discounts on products featured in boxes
• Glossydots reward program- complete monthly surveys and refer friends to earn dots and every 1,000 dots you get a free box
• $21 monthly, $60 for 3 months, $115 for 6 months, $220 for year; cancel anytime
• Comes in beautifully wrapped box filled with tissue paper, makes an ideal gift

If anyone is already a member of one of these or decides to join, please let me know. I would love to hear your thoughts!

* Birchbox, Ipsy, and Glossybox info gathered from buzzfeed.com, and Julep info taken from handmadebynatalie.blogspot.com.

Do the Most Before You Post: Everyone Needs A Social Media Strategy

Long gone are the days of spontaneously posting content on your social media channels and having it result in impressions. All of the big guns (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) are getting smarter, and with that, it drives us to be more strategic with our social media schedules.

Public Relations professionals and marketing strategists know that in order to do our jobs to the best of our ability, we have to treat the profession as an ever-changing industry. With that being said, I attended a very informative talk this week on the things people need to focus on before publishing posts on social media.

Content

Content is king, but you must post this content with purpose. Start out with an old-fashioned mission statement that will give you direction to later fill in details. You also have to know something about your audience, so listen and send out discovery questionnaires to learn everything about these people. Once you discover who you are talking to, you can create personas representing the different types of consumers you are trying to reach.

What you want your audience to do? Engage in conversation and get them to take an action on your behalf. Test content (messages and types) out on your audience in variations that include video, images, text. Once it's obvious what types do not connect with your audience, don't be afraid to purge the bad and introduce the new. Lastly, calendar everything. An automation content calendar is your friend so use it!

Time of Day
What are the best times of day to post content on social media so that your audience sees it? This is a very important question because the time of day you post truly matters to your business. If you receive no impressions, you receive no value and your time is wasted. The answer to the question is probably not what you think: it depends on your audience. Everyone does not look at their social media channels at the same time, so people really need to research their audience's social media viewing patterns and schedule posts to coincide with those times. If you manage more than one company's social media, or multiple channels for a company, you might want to make an audience viewing chart for reference.

Paid Ads
In today's social media world, you have to pay to play. This sentence refers to Facebook the most. Simply put, when Facebook went public it changed. Organic reach plummeted, and now, if you don't pay on Facebook, a lot of times your content is not seen. Sometimes, as little as boosting a post for $5 can make a difference. Facebook's algorithm, Edgerank, rewards you when you pay to boost a post. After you promote a post, every post that follows for an extended period of time, gets a lift. Start small and buy smart when it comes to promoting posts; figure out who you want to reach and why. As with most paid advertising, there is a threshold where Facebook ads are concerned and your posts can become saturated.

Channels
According to social media experts, Facebook and Twitter are not going away, but they are considered to be plateauing. Suggested reading on the plateau of Twitter is an article by The Atlantic titled, "A Eulogy for Twitter." On the other hand, LinkedIn has gotten a lot more interesting in the past 6-12 months. LinkedIn signs up two new members per second and around 40% of members check their LinkedIn account daily. The site just hit 300,000,000 users, made enhancements to company pages, and launched university pages.
Slideshare is a social media channel than a lot of people aren't familiar with yet, but it is highly useful. Companies often post presentations with detailed information of certain products on this channel. It's a good research tool when deciding to try a certain product or brand. Lastly, experts believe that blogs will once again trump other social media channels in the future. Let's face it, the content that really matters is the content that you control and the content you own. Blogging allows a person or company to show a more personal side and share knowledge that is important to them.

I'll leave you with a list of some great tech sites to check out on the web: mashable, techmeme, digg, reddit
thenextweb, buffer, and socialbro.

Be sure to follow Blake Killian, social media director, at Zehnder Communications, and the person who shared all of this knowledge with me, on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/blakekillian. Oh yea, catch me on Twitter too: Bridget Conrad: @bridgec17.

Summer TV Line-Up is Hotter Than Ever Before: Check Out These Five Shows

Years ago, it used to be that one would dread the summer season where TV is concerned because all of our favorite shows go on hiatus. Have no fear, because this summer, you can find shows that are just as hot to get hooked on. These five summer shows will fill your summer with drama, entertainment, and uplifting messages.

1. Mistresses- This show is definitely a guilty pleasure of mine and is the closest thing to a prime time soap on TV this summer. It stars Alyssa Milano (Savi), Rochelle Aytes (April), Yunjin Kim (Karen), and Jes Macallan (Joss) as four female friends who face a plethora of complex decisions associated with their personal relationships. Season one ended with Karen and Elizabeth Grey going head-to-head, April ditching both the men in her life and choosing herself, Savi finding out Dom is the father of her unborn baby and fighting for her life after a car crash, and Joss losing her girlfriend, career and possibly her sister. Season two will air on ABC on June 2 at 10/9c and takes place eight months after season one ended.

2. The Bachelorette- I think by now everyone is familiar with The Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise, but I'm particularly excited about this season of The Bachelorette because it's featuring Andi Dorfman from Juan Pablo's season. Andi is a successful lawyer that knows what she wants and had no problem calling out Juan Pablo on his BS last season, which resulted in her walking away from him right before a rose ceremony. She's proven that she's not afraid to say what she's thinking and, in my opinion, that makes a good Bachelorette. The Bachelorette premiers on ABC on May 19 at 8/7c.

3. So You Think You Can Dance- Some may say this show started out as the American Idol of dance, but I believe Nigel Lythgoe still has an engaging concept with this show. SYTYCD is basically a talent competition for professional dancers who each specialize in their own genre of dance. They are put through the ringer during Vegas week, get partnered up, dance with SYTYCD All-Stars, and in the end, one male and one female are crowned "America's Favorite Dancers." I love this show not only for the dancing, but the production staff engages with fans on social media and actually listens in order to make this show 100% for the people watching it. SYTYCD premieres on Fox on May 28 at 8/7c.

4. Fix Your Life- Join relationship expert and life coach, Iyanla Vanzant, as she helps people overcome obstacles in their lives. Every episode dives into a different topic posed by a guest and includes Vanzant's view on pre-taped footage from the guest's everyday life. She attempts to make the guest look at their setback in a different way and learn how to overcome it. Viewers get updates at the end of each show on the guest's progress. Some past guests have included Terrell Owens and Evelyn Lozada. Fix My Life currently airs on the OWN Network, Sundays at 9/8c.

5. Real Housewives of New Jersey- Welcome back to one of the most popular housewives franchises on Bravo! Although, this season is a little different: Caroline Manzo and Jacqueline Laurita are gone, Kathy Wakile has been demoted to "friend of the housewives", Melissa and Teresa appear to get along, and we have three new housewives: Dina Manzo (not really new but back after hiatus from show), Nicole Napolitano, and Amber Marchese. Just because it looks like the feud between Teresa and Melissa is squashed, doesn't mean the drama well is dry this season. Look for new housewives Amber and Nicole to get into it, among other scandalous moments. The big question mark is how did Bravo handle all of Teresa's legal troubles this season? Only time will tell! Bravo has not released an air date for season 6 of RHONJ yet, but it is confirmed and will definitely premiere in either June or July.

Surviving a Southern Summer- Seven Tips to a Successful Summer Season

Living in Louisiana, we have our fair share of hot and humid summer months. With a little practice, and trial and error, I share with you five tips that anyone can use to survive a summer in the south.

1. Add light colored pants to your wardrobe- Do not shy away from buying those light khaki pants or white jeans this summer. If you are like me, and feel like a sausage in casing in white jeans, here is a great tip- buy your light-colored pants a size larger and have them tailored down where needed. I heard a sales girl at The Limited tell another customer this and I felt like my life changed, ha. I actually did go out and buy my first pair of white jeans though and I love them.

2. Invest in a keratin-based hair product- I have frizzy and curly hair, so some kind of keratin-based product for my hair is a must in the summer. I recommend either Organix Ever Straight Brazilian Keratin Therapy or Tresemme 7-day Keratin Smooth.

3.  Make a pool day playlist- During the hot summer months, I try to get out to a pool as much as possible to cool off. There's nothing more relaxing then laying out in a lounge chair and listening to music that makes you feel like you are on an island vacation. Relaxing tunes like Coldplay's "Paradise" or Bob Marley's "Could you be Loved" are great additions to a pool day playlist.

4. You can use sunscreen and still get a decent tan- I'm at an age now where it's just not smart for me to only put on tanning oil when laying out. I like to use a face moisturizer with at least SPF 30 and sunscreen with at least SPF 25 on my body. My trick though, is that I put dark tanning oil on top of the sunscreen, which still results in a sunkissed glow.

5. Don't be afraid of neon colors- Neon colored clothes have been a trend for a few years now. While neons can easily make an outfit look cheap, they can also be incorporated into an outfit in classy ways. I use neons as my pops of color in the summer. Whether a statement necklace, bracelets,  a design on a shirt, or even shorts paired with a neutral colored top, neons can make a summer outfit fun and stylish. Oh, and they for sure make you look tanner than you really are. :)

6. Find a go-to summer cocktail- My go-to summer cocktail used to be a margarita all the way, but I discovered the St. Germain cocktail just this week. It's 4 parts dry sparkling wine, 1.5 parts St. Germain, lemon for garnish and fill with ice. Delish!

7. Drink lots of water- If water isn't your thing, many brands have come out with products to flavor your water. My favorite is the Crystal Light line- so many good flavors!

Stay Full All Morning with this Homemade Parfait Recipe

If you are like me, you are one of those people that have to have breakfast and coffee to be a functioning member of society every day. I was at the point where I was sick of every flavor Luna bar out there and needed something different. I started experimenting one day and put together some ingredients to make a parfait mix every Sunday that would last me throughout the week and that I could mix up different fruits in it.

Well, below is the concoction I am hooked on. As the fruit seasons change, you can change up the fruit, but the grapes are pretty much a constant in this breakfast dish.

Fruit & Yogurt Parfait
Servings- about 10  Prep time: 10 min.

Ingredients

• (1) 8 ounce tub of fat free cream cheese (I like the tub rather than the package because the tub is softer).
• (1) cup (8 ounces) of fat free plain Greek yogurt
• 1/3 cup of sugar
• (2) teaspoons of vanilla extract
• (2) pounds of seedless grapes (I usually use red grapes)
• (2) cups of berries (strawberries, blueberries or raspberries)
• (2) cups of additional seasonal fruit
• granola sprinkled on each serving (I use Special K granola with a touch of honey)

Directions:

• In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, Greek yogurt, sugar and vanilla until blended. Add grapes and other fruits, then toss to coat.
• Cover and refrigerate. 
• Sprinkle granola on each serving.

This recipe always lasts me at least a week for breakfast, and I sometimes even eat it for a snack on the weekends. I wake up every day for work in just enough time to get ready and get out the door, so having a healthy breakfast already made has really helped me in the mornings. 

Hope you enjoy!

Five Tips to Take Full Advantage of Your LinkedIn Profile

When you are in the communications profession, it's especially important to stay up-to-date on ways to make social media work for you. Admittedly, Linkedin was a social media network that I use on a regular basis, but knew the least about. So, when I saw that the university I work for was offering an executive education class on how to get the most out of your LinkedIn profile, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to brush up on my skills. Below you will find five simple tweaks that you can make to your LinkedIn profile to make you more searchable and relevant on this social media network.

1. Take note of your profile strength- In the bottom, right hand corner of your profile, LinkedIn takes it upon itself to rank your profile basically from zero to hero. If you want to make your profile stronger, under profile, hit edit profile, and LinkedIn takes you through a series of steps to brighten up your online presence. Your ultimate goal should be to make it to "all-star."

2. Edit your default tagline- The default setting for your profile tagline is your current job title, which, if you think about it, makes no sense. Change this tagline to keywords that set you apart and make you unique- for example, mine is, "Experienced Public Relations Professional, Marketing Strategist, Social Media Manager, and Event Planner." You will see the option to edit this once you are in the edit profile function.

3. Customize your profile so you are easier to find- Your default URL on LinkedIn is a bunch of random letters and numbers, which is located at the top left of your profile underneath your picture. Change this URL to something you can remember. My profile URL is www.linkedin.com/in/bridgetconrad/  . Also, make sure that your profile is visible to everyone. You can do this under the edit profile function, go to the bottom of your profile under connections, and click customize visibility.

• 

  Make the Most of Your LinkedIn Profile
  

  
  

4. Remind people of you profile- Put the link to your public profile in the signature of your email. You can add a LinkedIn graphic button to your emails- click the following link to see directions http://slidesha.re/1jmzbOn 

5. Include a summary on your profile- A summary on your profile helps people make a personal connection with you through industry, school or hometowns. Who knows- this could be the deciding factor on whether someone calls you for a job! You can do this easily under the edit profile function, in the background section.

I hope these tips are helpful! Do me a favor and add Heather Esposito on LinkedIn- www.linkedin.com/in/heatheresposito . She taught the class I attended and changed my views on LinkedIn completely. In fact, just this week, LinkedIn hit the 300 million user mark, so it's definitely a worthwhile network and it pays to keep your profile current. Oh, also add me on there too: www.linkedin.com/in/bridgetconrad .Have a great Easter everyone!